Blues sheet music

What notation can and cannot capture

Blues notation is an approximation by nature. Bent notes, microtonal thirds and the swing feel of a shuffle are all written as conventions rather than described precisely, and two players reading identical pages will not sound the same. Guitar editions add bend, slide and vibrato markings; piano editions notate the shuffle as straight eighths with a swing indication at the top.

This makes instructional editions unusually valuable in blues — a transcription with explanatory text about feel is worth more than a bare transcription.

Where the free material is

Pre-war country blues and classic blues recordings are mostly out of copyright, and the archives we index carry transcriptions and period sheet music. W.C. Handy's published blues, and much of the 1920s repertoire, are freely available.

Post-war Chicago blues, and any modern transcription of any recording, remain in copyright regardless of how old the underlying song is — the transcription itself is a new work.